Through the Word in 2020 #172 - Dec. 14 / Christian Trouble Makers

In Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, He used 2 interesting and powerful terms describing Believers in His economy: Salt, and Light. Those two word pictures are pregnant with implications.

In order to be salt and light - we must uncompromisingly live as those who know our blessedness does not come from this world - but rests in their being citizens of Christ's Kingdom.

Salt loses its "saltiness" in only one way - mixture with other things. Salt crystals never lose their essential property. But when salt becomes mixed with other substances, the salt no longer can do its work. The question is, what are we mixing with our devotion to Christ?

1. When we value what the world values

2. When we fear what the world fears

3. When we reason the way the world reasons

God is light and life. All things left to themselves are decay and darkness. As His, Christians bring His light and life giving presence into this world. We are this way because He is this way. He alone stands contrary to sin's entropy. He alone brings light. Apart from Him - all is darkness and deconstructing chaos.

But when we fail to live as salt and light, it isn’t just that we fail - we actually bring trouble to the world around us. We’ll catch a glimpse of that today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Revelation 12:7-13:10, John 16:5-24 and Obadiah 19-Jonah 3:5 form our reading list today. And it is Jonah’s refusal at first to be salt and light that captures my attention.

Jonah used to be someone I really disdained. Whiny. Cowardly. Running from God. Shirking responsibility. Uncaring for the souls of others. Placing his own comforts, desires and opinions above the needs of those God called him to.

Back to our original theme and the events of Chapter 1. When Jonah was running from doing what God had called him to. Booking passage on a boat to get as far away from obeying God as he could - in his rebellion, he brought the life-threatening storm that would have consumed the others in the boat with him. But at that point, he didn’t care if he was salt or light to a bunch of pagans. He just wanted to serve himself, and no one else.

Until. Until I really studied the book. Until I came to realize that the only reason we know so much about Jonah and his weaknesses, sins and follies, is because he is the only one who could have related all the details. He wrote the book, telling on himself. In the end, he was more interested in us gaining a sense of the unfathomable riches of God’s mercy and grace than how he looked to anyone.

And I want to be like that too.