Sermon on the Mount: Salt & Light

You are Salt & Light

Announcements:

Family Lunch after service today

Men’s ministry this month. Be on the look out for more in the news letter.

Review of Your Mission / Our Mission.

Your Mission: To be more like Jesus. Eph. 3:10

Worship: The Jesus First life: Honoring Christ as highest in all we do. Col. 3:17

Walk: The Jesus Perspective: Growing deeper in maturity of our understanding of God’s truth and will. Col. 1:28

Work: Jesus in Action: Using your giftedness in service of others. Rom. 12:6-8

Salt for the Disciple & for the World (Results of Kingdom Living)

Matthew 5:13 ““You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

By placing “you” (Gr. hymeis) in the emphatic position in the Greek text, Jesus was stressing the unique calling of His disciples (cf. v. 14).

Matthew 5:14 ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Salt was important in the ancient Near East because

it flavored food

slowed decay in food

and in small doses fertilized land.

Jesus implied by this metaphor that His disciples could positively affect the world (Gr. kosmos, the inhabited earth, i.e., humankind).

They had the opportunity through their lives and witness to bring blessing to others and to slow the natural decay that sin produces in life.

As salt thrown out on the earth, they could also produce fruit to God.

The most obvious characteristic of salt is that it is different from the environment into which its user places it. Jesus’ disciples likewise are to be different from the world.

Sea salt is a natural antiseptic and anti inflammatory that for thousands of years has been used in wound cleansing. Remember the expression, “throwing salt on a wound?” That's because that's what people actually did to clean out infected cuts, and scraps.

As salt is an antiseptic, so the disciples are to be a moral disinfectant in a sin-infested world. This requires virtue, however, that comes only through divine grace and self-discipline.

A Light that Shines Bright

Matthew 5:14 ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Matthew 5:14-16 ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Light is a common symbol in the Bible. It represents purity, truth, knowledge, divine revelation, and God’s presence all in contrast to their opposites.

The Israelites thought of themselves as lights in a dark world.

Is 42.6 ““I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,”

Jesus is the true light:

John 8:12 “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””

John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.””

Jesus’ disciples are lights in the derived sense, as the moon is a light but only because it reflects the light of the sun

Eph. 5:8-10 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Phil 2:15 “that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”

The city set on a hill (v. 14) may refer to messianic prophecy concerning God lifting up Zion and causing the nations to stream to it

Is. 2:2-5 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Since God will make the capital of the messianic kingdom prominent, it is inappropriate for the citizens of that city to assume a low profile in the world before its inauguration

Luke 11:33 ““No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”

Matthew 5:14 ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

The disciples must therefore manifest good works, the outward demonstration or testimony to the righteousness that is within them (v. 16). Even though the light may provoke persecution (vv. 10-12), they must reflect the light of God.

Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

For the first time in Matthew, Jesus referred to God as the Father of His disciples

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

“If salt (v. 13) exercises the negative function of delaying decay and warns disciples of the danger of compromise and conformity to the world, then light (vv. 14-16) speaks positively of illuminating a sin-darkened world and warns against a withdrawal from the world that does not lead others to glorify the Father in heaven.”

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.[2] He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Bonhoeffer was accused of being associated with the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and was then quickly tried along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office). He was hanged on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing. Which offically surrended on Sep 2, 1945.

“Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 106.