Life after Salvation (3): Living as the Salt and Light of the World

서론

- We have been dealing with life after salvation continuously. It’s about how our lives should be after salvation.

- Today, I will talk about how to live in this world as Christians who are saved.

- If sanctification, being more and more like Jesus in character, is about one-to-one relationshp with God, and if being used for the kingdom of God by carrying out the commission that God gave each of us is about the kingdom of God, today’s theme is about relationship with the world, how to live as Christians in the world.

- Compare the time you spend in the church and in the school if now is not vacation. The time you spend in the school or the time you spend with your friends outside church will be much more than the time you spend in the church. Such a difference will be greater after you graduate and you become adults.

!! We are being who live in the world. We have to live mingling with non-Christians in this world.

- So it is very important to know how to live as Christians in the world.

Examples of Christians in the world

- There are a variety of types of Christians in the world.

- Someone is clearly a Christian who goes to church every Sunday. But people around him in school don’t know that he is a Christian. This is becasue he does not tell his friends about his faith, and there is no difference between him and his friends in their life style.

- He smokes, drinks, swears, and cheats in tests as his friends do. There was not any difference.

- We call this kind of person Sunday Christian or nominal Christian.

- There is another kind of Christian. The man loves Jesus. He loves church. So he comes to the church building almost every day. In the church building, he prays and reads the bible. And sometimes he cleans the building. It looks good so far.

- By the way, in the world, that is, in school, he cannot mingle with friends. He thinks worldly people are too different from him, and he hates their culture. He loves only church culture. Consequently, he becomes an outsider little by little.

- I just said two extreme examples. Both of them are problematic.

~Then how should Christians live in this world? In today’s text, Jesus is giving us the answer.

You are the Salt and Light of the World

1) 정체성 Identity <PPT>

- Jesus says to his disciples that they are the salt and light of the world.

<< Matt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.”

<< Matt 5:14 “You are the light of the world.”

- According to the Greek Bible, the original language of the Bible, “you” is being emphasized so much. It means “YOU” are the salt and light of the world.

- Jesus is speaking of their identity in the world they live in. Jesus says, “your identity in the world is the salt and light of this world.”

2) The Salt of the earth

<< Matt 5:13

- At that time, salt and light were considered among people as the most useful substances in the world. Salt was used to flavor and preserve food. This was possible because of its salty ingredient.

- But Jesus says, if the salt loses its salty taste, it is not good for anything. It becomes useless so people throw it out and trample it under their feet.

- Jesus’ point is that salt should keep its distinctive flavor, salty taste, to be real salt.

3) The Light of the world

<< Matt 5:14-15

- Jesus says that Christians are the light of the world. Light has a function of removing darkness and make the real appearance revealed.

- In verse 14, Jesus says that the dirty reality of the world will be shown through you.

- And he continuosly says in verse 15 that your reality will be shown in the world because you are the light and the light cannot be hidden.

4) 정리

- When Jesus said that we were the salt and light of the world, the meaning was this: Every Christian is living in the world, but they should not lose their distinctive flovor, they should not hide their light they have to shine.

- Then, what is our distinctiveness as Christians? What do we have to show to others in the world? Jesus says it is our good deeds.

<< Matt 5:16

- The distinctive flavor we have to show is our good deeds. The light we have to shine to people is also our good deeds. We should be distinguished from others in the world by our good deeds.

세상에서의 그리스도인들의 모습 / 우리의 모습

- Think about lives of today’s Christians!

- When you see them, are their lives distinct from others?

- How about your life? When you look back on your life, is there any difference from others in your life?

- In your life, are good behaviors you have to show being shown to others?

!! We should mingle with them in this world. And we should be good toward them. Through this goodness, we should be distinct.

착함에 대해서 <PPT>

1) 착함의 의미

- What is the good deed we have to show, specifically?

- It literally means goodness. It means that Christians should be good basically.

- Because our God is good, we should be good, too. We should take after our God, our Jesus.

- Of course we all have sinful nature. We are still evil. But we received God’s great love and experienced God’s great goodness. And We became His children. And the Holy Spirit who lives in us continuously generates goodness in us. So we have to be good and show good deeds in the world.

!! As Christians, we must show to others how we live according to God’s word. We must let the love of Jesus flow through our words and behaviors in our daily lives.

- In doing so, people in the world acknowlege our distinctiveness. They are amazed. They praise us. And our God is pleased with their response.

2) 착함의 기준이 세상과 다를 때

- But there are times when the standard of goodness is different from that of the world. This is because the standard for a life of the world and the standard for a life of the kingdom of God are different.

- EX: Homosexuality

- Suppose this situation. In your school, there may be an event of signing the petition supporting and donating for a homosexual organization. Most of your friends think that they have to sign that petition for gay and lesbian’s right. They think that it is goodness.

- But in the sight of God, It is good not to sign the petition because the Bible says we have to love even gay and lesbians but the homosexuality is clearly a sin in the sight of God, and we should be careful about the influence the homosexuality movement has.

- So if you did not sign the petition, your friends might misunderstand or hate you.

- Nonetheless, we should not compromise. We should keep our identity as the Salt and Light of the world.

- It’s difficult. Sometimes you may feel unfair or alienated. It can be hardship or persecution we have to bear as Christians in this world.

- All of us will face this kind of moment in our lives. At that time, we have bow down before God. It’s time to rely on and pray to God to experience God’s grace and power in this world.

- 그러면 처음에 우리를 욕하던 사람들이 하나님의 역사를 보고, 우리를 인정한다. 하나님을 인정한다.

- 하나님이 영광 받으신다.

착한 행동으로 하나님께 영광돌리기 <PPT>

<< Matt 5:16

- When we show our distictive goodness to others as the salt and light, people see our good deeds and glorify our God.

- Who glorifies God? Not we! But people in the world! It means non-believers give glory to God.

- EX: Joseph and Pharaoh / Daniel and King Darius

- As we read the story of Joseph, The Pharaoh of Egypt exalts Joseph’s God.

- As we read the story of Daniel, the king who saw Daniel’s faithfulness to God glorifies Daniel’s God.

- It does not always mean they came to believe in God. It means that the people in the world are amazed and admire the Christians’ behaviors and they acknowledge them and their God. God is pleased with this.

- EX: When your neighbor sees you helping some poor person and admires your good character, the neighbor talks about this to your parents. How would your parent feel, hearing of the praise for you? Your parent would be pleased with their admiration for your good deeds.

- God’s heart is similar to this. He will be pleased with the response of the people in the world.

- However, when Christians do not show their distinctiveness but compromise with the world, when they cannot show good deeds, when they don’t live as the Salt and Light of the world, they will be condemned by the world, and God’s glory will be trampled by the people because of our wrong deeds.

정리 및 결론

- You guys, have you even seen the website of HIBC? On the website, there is our page. <교회 홈페이지 같이 보기>

- In this page, it is written that our desire is for our students to live and serve this world as light and salt.

- This is the identity Jesus gave us who live in the world.

- I remember some of you said the purpose of the life is having an influence on this world with your talent and effort.

- I like that.

- We all are living in the world. So we have to live in the system of the society we belong to. Because you are students, you have to study hard.

- When you work in the future, you have to work sincerely. You have to mingle with members in your community in the world.

- But remember that you should be different from them at the same time.

- You should shine your light to others for them to see your good deeds and glorify our God.

- At decisive moments, show them you are those who live according to God’s Word. Let the love of Christ flow to them through your life.

- Don’t forget your identity in the world!

함께 기도 & 찬양

1) 기도

- that we may realize our identity as the salt and light of the world!

- that we may reveal the goodness of God through our words and behaviors in the world we live in!

2) 찬양: How great is our God!