Sermon Tone Analysis

New Year

I always love January.

As a month, it has a very different feel about it.

It almost feels fluid.

The rhythm of the other months are gone and the days of the week seem to mold from one to the next with little distinction between the two.

I like it because it is different.

I feel that it is a chance to reset.

Sometimes that might be a conscious resetting - you know, the type you do when you make a new years resolution.

But to be honest, I find the reset more happens by stopping and then starting again.

Not so much a new years resolution, more like the off then on again strategy you use on a computer.

But whether the reset is conscious or not, January allows the opportunity to assess what it is that we’re about.

As an individual, we can ask, what am I doing?

Does the path I’ve taken need some correction?

Is there something different that I should be doing.

They are also questions we get the opportunity to reflect on regarding your involvement in church.

Are there new ministries I can be involved with?

Or possibly even, are there some ministries that I should be stepping aside from?

Now, there’s a little problem with the last few questions I just asked, and it’s a problem when we try to do a reset.

You see, the questions I invited us to think about focus on the things we are doing.

And to be fair, we certainly do need to think about what we’re doing.

But there’s a deeper question.

And that is, not on the level of what we do, but on who we are.

Now what we do should be the outflow of who we are, but when we think about who we are, we can start thinking about our character.

What values do we hold dear.

What sort of worldview do we have.

Unfortunately, in the world we live in, there are many factors that will start to influence how we think about such things.

The ads we see on TV, the internet, and, well, nearly everywhere we look, actually have more of an impact on us then we care to acknowledge.

We can start to become influenced by both the traditional media and social media.

Subtly, we find our values shifting.

We act in ways that aren’t true to us.

We need a time to stop, and allow us to remember who we are.

But this begs the question: who are we?

Of course, we are a very diverse group of people.

We have different interests.

We have different backgrounds.

But for the most part, we do have something in common.

We have each heard God calling and we’ve responded.

For some, that might not yet be the case.

Maybe you’re yet to make that response.

But the fact that you’re here, most likely represents that you’re at least exploring the idea.

Therefore, we have Jesus in common.

If we have accepted Him, then this means He should be shaping our lives.

So what sort of shape should that take?

Well, if you want to know what it should look like to have your life shaped by Jesus, then a good place to start is what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

Now I’m thinking that later in the year, I’ll likely do a more extended series on this Sermon on the Mount, but for my purposes this morning, I’m just going to touch on it a bit, and focus on the verses that were read earlier.

You see, what we’re going to see in the verses that I read before, if you’re going to be shaped by Jesus, then you should be making a difference in the world in which you live.

And so this morning, as we move our way into the beginning of January, I’m going to ask you to reflect on what difference you are making in the community around you?

Perhaps the first question should be: are you making a difference?

Now as I ask that question, avoid the temptation to compare what you are doing to the impact that others might have.

Comparisons like these are almost always unhelpful.

So don’t ask whether the difference you’re making is as big as the next person, rather ask whether you’re living a Jesus shaped life that can make a difference.

If you’re living a Jesus shaped life, you will make a difference, the size of that difference is really not important.

The sermon on the mount

Well, keep that question in mind, because we’re going to jump into the passage and do some exploring.

But first, let’s explore what we’re talking about when we say the Sermon on the Mount.

When we use this phrase, we’re talking about all of the teaching Jesus gave as recorded for us in Matthew 5-7.

It gets its name because if you look at the start of Matthew 5, it tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

It then says that as the disciples came to him he began to teach them.

Now it is possible that these teachings might actually be a mix of teaching from various talks Jesus gave, but to be honest it doesn’t really matter.

What is clear, however, is that these teachings represent the way Jesus expected his disciples to follow.

At the very start of this teaching, we get what we call the Beatitudes.

The beatitudes teach us something very different to what the world teaches.

It teaches us that rather than being proud and boastful, we should be poor in spirit.

Rather than turning a blind eye to the evils of this world, we should mourn.

Instead of a posture of power, we should be meek.

We need to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Be filled with mercy.

Have a pure heart.

Seek after peace.

It’s an upside down way of thinking, but it’s this type of thinking that then sets the scene for the rest of the teaching we have recorded for us.

Salt

It is then following this opening section, that we come to the section I want to focus on this morning.

Jesus then says to the crowd - firstly, “You are the salt of the earth”.

And then in the next verse “You are the light of the world”.

The assumption of course is that you are the salt and light, if you live in the way that Jesus has just described.

But before I come back and explore what this means for us, it’s worth pausing a moment to unpack the imagery of both salt and ligt.

So let’s start with salt.

Two functions of salt

Well, salt essentially serves two functions.

It preserves and it flavours.

As a preservative, salt can prevent decay.

Essentially it puts a stop to what is bad.

And so, particularly before the advent of refrigeration, salt was very useful.

Today, some backyard swimming pools can actually be salt water.

The reason for the salt is because it kills of the germs in the pool.

Salt is actually a powerful compound.

But as I said before, it’s not just a preservative, it’s also flavours.

It can make bland food tasty.

So how does this apply to what Jesus is talking about?

Well, we live in a world that is decaying.

A world that has gone against God’s good design.

It’s a world that puts profit before people.

People are treated as a commodity.

It’s a world that has become so individualistic, that people will do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Sex is thought of purely in terms of pleasure, as if its just a bit of fun and not much more.

This is the world we are in, and if we are to be the salt, we have a role to play in standing up to it.

At times we’ve seen Christians be the salt in powerful ways.

Like William Wilberforce, which went completely against the crowd and eventually brought down the slave trade, and later even slavery itself.

Or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was the salt against Adolf Hitler.

It eventually cost him his life, but it was the salt that was needed.