Matthew 5:13-20

Intro

Biblical theology

provides the narrative context of Scripture

recognizes that there a “plot”

that is that there is a beginning, middle and end

that there is intention, purpose, and trajectory to this story

Biblical theology helps us understand

1) the Scriptures more clearly

2) our place and purpose in the redemptive plan of God

Example:

Question I received this week:

“In light of the current racial tensions engulfing our nation, how should we understand the biblical passages where God prohibits the Israelites from inter-marrying with the other nations? Is this an example of racial or ethnic supremacy condoned by God in Scripture?”

How do we resolve that issue?

We seek to understand God’s commands to Israel in light of the prevailing narrative of the Scriptures.

God chose Israel as his special people to demonstrate his glory

Exodus 19:5–6 ESV

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

2. God did not choose Israel because they were the greatest ethnicity (this is not the Judeo-Christian master-race) but because of his own glory—as a witness to the nations

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 ESV

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

3. Moreover God had a redemptive purpose—not merely that people would know that this nation was the people who’s God is the Lord, but also because it is through this nation that the Savior of the world has been promised!

Genesis 22:18 ESV

and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

4. The great danger in the intermarrying of Israel with the pagan people of the land was that they would adopt the pagan gods, and thus fail to be the unique, set apart, God-glorifying, redemption bearing people of God! For the sake of the world—that could not happen!

Deuteronomy 7:3–4 ESV

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

-we see that come to fruition

-Ahab marries Jezebel (she’s the worst)

-Jezebel is a Phoenician princes

-the people build high places, and sacrifice their children to fertility gods

-However—it clearly is not racial. See: Ruth

Question: How does any of this relate to the sermon on the mount?

—> It has everything to do with the answer to the fundamental question of what does it mean to be salt and light?

Don’t rush by the question:

So many Christian organizations, institutions, leaders are determined to meld Christianity with secular culture

But what assumptions does that reveal about their perception of a) the nature of our mission, and b) the character of the world?

In contrast, what does a survey of the biblical narrative tell us about a) our mission, and b) the world?

that there are none that seek God (Rom 3:11)

that the system of the world is opposed to God

that we are called to be the unique people of God who call attention to his glory by lives lived for his fame! (1 Pet 2:9)

Three Observations:

1. We are called to distinctiveness.

2. To cease to be distinct is to cease to be useful.

Salt and light have value in relation to contrast

If salt had no taste or nutritional value, there would be no point in putting it on your steak

If light was indistinguishable from darkness, it would not only not be valuable, but would cease to be a thing at all. There would be no point calling this thing light, it would just be more darkness, or a continuation of darkness.

Imagine you are lost in the woods in the middle of the night, and in the pitch black you are running into trees, and afraid of blindly falling into a pit or crevasse. But then you remember before you came hiking you invested in a flashlight, quite an expensive flashlight, in fact, which you bought from Ace Hardware. So you pull it out and you flick it on, but no light comes on. What good is that flashlight to you? Perhaps you shall walk around feeling more content because this flashlight is turned “on” but you won’t feel any better when you fall in the bit that you couldn’t see because there was no light!

Therefore, to say that these things (salt and light) are no longer distinct, or unique is to say that they are useless.

3. This uniqueness should not be unnecessarily abrasive.

-> There is a sense in which the truth, the message of righteousness, the gospel is unavoidably abrasive.

it reveals and condemns the evil in the heart of men

the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to the wordly wise

the truth is abrasive to the children of the father of lies!

-> However, we need to check our motives and our methods

Motives

Lesson of Jonah

would rather die than go to Nineveh

rejoices when God’s salvation is applied to him, is angry when it is applied to others

he preaches the destruction of Nineveh without a call to repentance

essentially he embraces the message of condemnation but despises the message of reconciliation

Am I trying to win the argument, or share the saving gospel of Jesus Christ?

Methods

distinctiveness does not require we wear suits to church

or sing only songs from a hymnal

or use only certain instruments

—> Instead, look at the context!

being meek, and merciful, and humble, and merciful, and a peacemaker, and a worker of righteousness—these are the appropriately abrasive ways we are called to be distinct from the world!

We are to look like Christ, who IS our righteousness (see v 17-20)