"Tudes" Part 2

PUT IN PREACHING MODE & TURN ON TIMER!!!

Preliminary:

Pen that Eric got you for Father’s day all it does - so now you know my Bible Study will be on the level

Pray

Review:

We have been covering The Sermon on the Mount which covers Matthew 5-7 a very similar and parallel passage is found in Luke 6:20-26

Yesterday we covered the first part of the first Lesson entitle- “Tudes” covered Matthew 5:1-12

A Disciples Character Matthew 5:3-12 = The Beatitudes - the blessed life

A few things to remember:

The Sermon on the Mount runs on two tracks Blessed and Holiness

Yesterday Tom Cunningham stopped me after the lesson and mentioned about standing on a track and looking into the distance. If the area is flat enough it will look like the two tracks come together as one - in reality blessed and holiness work like that as well.

The Sermon on the Mount was spoken to Disciples - not an evangelistic call or a recruitment plan - it is a plan for how Kingdom Dwellers live.

Lets just read through the Beatitudes again to help us see where we are in this sermon:

Matthew 5:3–12 KJV 1900

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Today we will talk about

A Disciples Influence - Matthew 5:13-16 Now we look at the next section of “Tudes” at what we as Kingdom Dwellers are Like

The Similitudes - Matthew 5:13-16

There are two similitudes we will discuss today - things Christians or Christ followers, Kingdom Dwellers are like.

1.) Salt (Matthew 5:13)

2.) Light (Matthew 5:14-16)

I want to explore these together.

1. Salt of the earth Matthew 5:13

Matthew 5:13 KJV 1900

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Salt is a wonder. Salt is composed of two poisonous substances. How is it possible that salt, which is necessary to life, is composed of sodium and chlorine, either of which if taken individually, would kill you?

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (7275 Two Wonders of Salt and Water)

Salt is used for a variety of purposes.

Salt is amazingly useful over 2,000 uses have been found for it.

It’s possible it was used at one time as currency

In the Bible it was

used to season food (Job 6:6)

Mixed with fodder for cattle (Isaiah 30:24)

All meat offerings in the OT were to be seasoned with salt (Leviticus 2:13)

There was a “Covenant of Salt” which was a perpetual obligation (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5)

All newborn babies were rubbed with salt (Ezekiel 16:4)

When Jesus says “ye are the salt of the earth” I don’t think he was just referring to someone who has a basic, fundamental goodness. Any goodness, apart from Christ is never good enough. Something we will see over and over again in this sermon on the Mount.

This metaphor of being like salt seems to be talking about salt’s preservative, cleansing, and seasoning capabilities.

We have a Unique Identity to Recognize (Matthew 6:16)

Salt has to do with distinctiveness and identity - Salt has a distinct flavor

Ye are - this is a statement of identification - not something to attain or obtain. If you are in the Kingdom - you are identified as Salt & Light

This savory salt sets you apart - salt preserves and brings out flavors of food - so are the “salt of the earth” they affect others positively for Christ.

Can I just say something that might get me in trouble - If our distinctive is anything but Christlikeness we have lost our savor

This Sermon on the Mount is what Christlikeness is - we cannot make an impact or influence around us unless we are like the salt - that unique identity to recognize.

On the other hand - we must be distinctly different. We are kingdom dwellers - not of this world

Sometimes we get more out of what Jesus does not say than what he does - and Jesus does not say “be the salt” but rather He declares, “You are the salt” its a similitude a metaphor you are to be like salt.

We have a Useful Potency to Retain

Jesus asks a question that he doesn’t really expect an answer to - “If the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” He goes on to say “It is good for nothing” All its good for is to be walked on

According to one scholar in that day salt was gathered from the marshes in the area southwest of the Dead Sea. The impure salt taken from the sea was susceptible to deterioration that left only useless crystals. Once it deteriorated, it cannot do what salt is supposed to do. Even today people in Israel scatter deteriorated salt on flat roofs of their homes to harden the soil and prevent leaks.

When Jesus asks this question about salt losing its saltiness he is implying that our saltiness, or flavor, or potency does not originate with us but is sourced from somewhere or in our case “Someone” else.

While some salt is said to lose its flavor or saltiness by being exposed to air and sunlight, salt is far more easily contaminated by impurities -

This usefulness is also seen in that salt doesn’t do any good by itself. Nor does it exist for itself.

Bruner notes, “salt a centimeter from food is useless.”

So the value in salt is seen only when it is contact with something and gives of itself. Salt in the shaker doesn’t do any good.

Those who are Kingdom of Heaven dwellers are “salt of the earth” he doesn’t say “gold of the earth” Not something of beauty and to be looked at and admired on the shelf in nice pretty collectible salt and pepper shakers - but rather to be used by God and shaken into the world, rubbed into the community where you live and work

How are we to maintain the healthy, salty tang of saintliness? By remaining rightly related to God through Jesus Christ.1

1 Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Hants, UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1960).

Orton Wiley that great Nazarene Theologian told of a memory when he was young on a ranch when “hog killing” time came around. Hams were hung in the smokehouse but the salt pork was cured differently. He said he would put down a layer of salt and a layer of meat and they would rub that salt into the meat, then they would put down a layer of salt and a layer of meat until the barrel was filled. He went on to say the salt didn’t do any good unless it was rubbed in the pork.

Can I just say God may want to “rub us in” the culture and society where we are. We are so prone to hunker down and surrender a “defeatists” attitude someone said the other day - but Jesus said “I build my church on the rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Those who are in the kingdom are like salt.

But not just salt he goes on

2. Light of the World Matthew 5:14-16

Matthew 5:14–16 KJV 1900

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We can only be the Light because Jesus is the Light of the World John 8:12

Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles makes his second of seven “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John

John 8:12 KJV 1900

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

What is interesting about this statement is that He makes it against the background of the great candle-lighting ceremonies that took place each night of the feast.

Here’s what would happen:

John: An Introduction and Commentary i. Jesus, the Light of the World (8:12–20)

At the close of the first Festival-day of the Feast they went down to the Court of the Women where they had made a great amendment. There were golden candlesticks there with four golden bowls on the top of them and four ladders to each candlestick, and four youths of the priestly stock and in their hands jars of oil holding a hundred and twenty logs which they poured into all the bowls. They made wicks from the worn out drawers and girdles of the priests and with them they set the candlesticks alight, and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect the light of the Beth ha-She’ubah.

Jesus stands up and says - this only lights a little part of the world - But I am the Light of the World!!!

For us to be the light of the world - a city set on a hill - we have to be a reflection of that light (Like reflectors on the road or reflector tape - it really doesn’t do much good as far as light is concerned until light is thrown on it)

“He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Oswald Chambers reminds us:

Light cannot be soiled; you may try to grasp a beam of light with the sootiest hand, but you leave no mark on the light. A sunbeam may shine into the filthiest hovel in the slums of a city, but it cannot be soiled. A merely moral man, or an innocent man, may be soiled in spite of his integrity, but the man who is made pure by the Holy Ghost cannot be soiled, he is as light.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount ((b) Conspicuous Setting (Matthew 5:14-16))

A candle shines as brightly with twenty people using it as it does with two users. Edgar A. Bryan

A light is on display in the dark - and we are living in a dark world - you are on display.

A city on a hill that cannot be hid -

In Hebrews 10:33 the writer says, “ye were made GAZINGSTOCKS”

We get to the first command out of 16 verses so far -

Matthew 5:16 KJV 1900

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

“Let your light so shine” This is implying there is a possibility of not letting it shine or attempting to use the light for our own advantage or gain - Jesus tells us exactly how we are to use our light -

Let the light illumines your good works so your good works are seen and the Father Glorified not the person doing the works. If we are still getting the glory we aren’t letting our light shine.

This is the direct opposite of humanity - We like to blow our own horn so to speak - I heard Bro. Kenny Filsinger quoting an older minister one time by giving a modern day beatitute, “Blessed is he that tooteth his own horn, for it shall not go untooted) We like to show off what we have done or what we do

But is what we are shining the light on or tooting our own horn about bringing glory to God?

Or perhaps what I struggle more with is being so private and secretive that people don’t know or can’t see - Jesus says let your light so shine that they can see but that they aren’t wowed over you but their immediate thought is “Praise God!”

1 Peter 2:12 KJV 1900

12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The light we let shine isn’t for our benefit, but rather for those around us and to expose our good works to the glory of God.

Someone has said, “You think you’re walking through the darkness. Not realizing you are a light for those walking beside you.”

I believe with all of my heart that Kingdom Dwellers - those who belong to Jesus have the potential and power to turn our world upside down - and you wouldn’t have to storm the capitol building to do it

Be the salt and the light that you are - stay in touch with Jesus let him be moulding you shaping you - Let His Face Shine upon you and give you peace.

Tomorrow we will look at the last section of this chapter on Jesus and the Law and the Prophets and Kingdom Righteousness

Thank you for your kind attention - God bless you.