The Similitudes
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Comparisons
Comparisons
The next section of the Sermon on the Mount is the Similitudes.
Literally, the comparisons.
In the next few verses, Jesus compares us to things as a way of helping us understand not only our role in this world, but our responsibilities.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
Salt of the earth
Salt of the earth
Merriam-Webster defines “Salt of the earth” as “a very good and honest person or group of people”
Today, salt is a seasoning.
Occasionally, we use it to preserve, like salted meat.
However, that’s more a culinary preference than a necessity.
So what does it mean to be the “salt of the earth”?
Salt is a preservative.
It draws out moisture and makes the food around it inhospitable to dangerous organisms.
To do that, it must be in contact with what it is to preserve.
Are you a preservative for the earth?
Do you make the world around you inhospitable to dangerous ways?
Do people stop swearing or telling bad jokes when you walk into a room?
Are you standing against corruption in our society?
Do you stand like Jesus stood?
Do we stand up to those who wish to corrupt the Gospel?
Or are we more interested in being called “nice people”?
Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
mk 12 38-39
Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
Do we transgress the commandments of God with our traditions?
Are we willing to sacrifice the clear Word of God for the acceptance of others?
mt
mt 15
The United Methodist recently said no, but just barely. And more fights are to follow.
Do we transgress God’s Word to honor the homosexual lifestyle?
Do we worship what others call “love” and “tolerance”?
Ignoring what God’s Word says about both?
Or do we just want to avoid being called names?
Do we transgress what God has said with the tradition of unity?
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Do we treat Jesus as an outcast for calling out those who are wrong?
Are we looking for unity in Christ or peace and quiet in our church services?
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
mt 23 13-
Salt is not changed by its surroundings, It changes its surrounding.
It changes its surrounding.
Even the sea is changed by the addition of salt.
Do you change your surrounding, or are you changed by them?
Or do you just wait in your salt box waiting for Jesus to take you home?
Do you avoid encountering evil ideas?
Afraid they may corrupt you?
Or decide it’s just not worth the effort?
Do you not speak up or stand up?
Because you don’t want to be called names?
Do you think being nice will bring more people to Jesus?
Then you have lost your saltiness.
Salt is not changed by what it is put on
It changes its surrounding.
Even the sea is changed by the addition of salt.
You are no longer able to preserve the world around you.
You can no longer season the world with Christ.
As Jesus says, you are good for nothing, but to be trampled underfoot by men.
Why do you think so many modern churches have been taken over by man’s perverted ideas?
Why have do many “christians” look more like the world than like the Lord they profess to follow?
Why is divorce and pornography so rampant about the church pews?
Why will churches not stand up for what Jesus has said?
Why do they compromise to get along?
Because they have lost their saltiness.
They are now good for nothing but to be thrown own and trampled by man.
They have been changed by their surroundings.
They have nothing left to stand on.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Literally, you are to be the light source of the earth.
Does your light shine before men?
Are you where those of the world go to find the light?
Are you sitting on a hill, showing the light of God to all the earth?
Picture an open plain at night.
Why not?
Picture an open plain at night.
For miles around, there is a light sitting on a distant hill for all to see.
If God’s people are to be that city, should we not be on a hill for all to see?
And not in a valley hiding from it?
If you are that city on the hill, your light cannot be hidden.
If you are a city in a valley, your light does no one else any good.
How is the world to see the truth if we hide it in our little groups?
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Similarly, it makes no sense to light a lamp only to hide it.
Do we take our light and hide it?
If a city on a hill can be seen for miles, a lamp is meant to light a specific place.
In our families?
Is your light hidden in your home?
Can others see it to light their way to truth?
In our churches?
Do you hide God’s Word in your heart, only to hide it from everyone else?
Are you selfishly keeping God’s Word for yourself?
How many believers get their lamps lit at church, take them home and hide them under a basket until the next Sunday?
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
magg 5 16
I think of the light like the moon.
I do not create the light, I am to reflect God’s light.
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Just as when the moon is hidden behind the earth, hiding behind the World and it’s ways prevents my light from shining.
Just as when the moon is hidden behind the earth, hiding behind the World and it’s ways prevents my light from shining.
Similarly, as I grow distant from the world the light I shine fades.
But when I am in position to reflect God’ Glory, what people see as my light shines brightly!
Like a full moon on a clear night, I can light up the whole land.
Yet it is not me, but the light I reflect from God.
When others can see what I do for God.
They see me doing my Father’s will.
They see me helping the poor and loving my neighbor,
They see me assisting a brother or sister in Christ to stand for God’s Word.
They see me thanking God for all He has blessed me with.
By seeing us glorifying God in what we do, they will learn to glorify our Father in heaven as well.
Irish Evangelist Gypsy Smith once said,
There are five gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Christian.
And some will never read the first four.
Do you reflect enough light for anyone to see you?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Many are fond of remembering verses where we are told not to let the world effect us.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
john 17 14,16
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
But we often breeze past verses like.
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
Verses like the ones we’ve read today.
Verses that tell us that we are to impact the world.
Verses that tell us that we are to impact the world.
We are to preserve while we wait.
We are to reflect His light into a sinful world.
While not letting the world change us.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Perhaps if those who claim to be followers of Christ were more like salt and light, things would be different.
Imagine if we were the preservative Christ has called us to be.
Would we be killing unborn babies by the millions?
Would pornography, sex trafficking, drugs and alcohol be rampant in our streets?
Would those who are poor and needy have a place to get help?
Would our legal and political systems be so corrupt?
Would we be fighting about petty things while more weighty matters went ignored?
What if we were light to a dark world?
What if we showed by example the joys of following Christ?
Rather than bickering and infighting?
What if we focused more on being an example than condemning others?
What would the world be like if we changed it more than it changes us?
A wise comic book author once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
We have been given great opportunities.
Like the parable of the talents, these opportunities are given by God for us to grow.
How many of us have buried them until our master returns?
How much better to run to our master and show Him what good we have done with the opportunities He has given us?