June 15, 2025 • 40 mins
Welcome back to Red Letters! In today’s message, “The Christian Distinctive,” Pastor Kelly Kinder dives into Matthew 5:13-16 and reminds us that Jesus doesn’t ask us to become salt and light—He boldly states we already are. That single truth reframes every conversation about identity, influence, and purpose.
Salt mattered in ancient kitchens because it preserved meat from rot and drew out rich flavors. Kelly shows how believers carry the same function in society: slowing moral decay and making truth compelling. But Jesus adds a caution: salt can lose its bite. When we compromise conviction to fit in, our presence no longer preserves anything, and culture shrugs us off. Kelly explores practical ways to stay “salty,” from guarding personal holiness to speaking hard truths in love.
The metaphor of light lifts the conversation higher. One lamp can change a room; one city on a hill guides travelers for miles. Light’s power is in visibility, not volume. Jesus invites us to place our everyday lives on a stand where neighbors, coworkers, and classmates can see good works that reflect God’s heart. Kelly illustrates this with stories of ordinary disciples: a mechanic who refuses dishonest upsells, a teen who befriends the outsider, a mom who hosts weekly dinners for single parents. Their influence isn’t flashy, but it directs attention to the Father.
Three questions drive the message: Where are you positioned to shine? How can your conduct make the gospel attractive? Why do you do it— for personal acclaim or for God’s glory? Ephesians 5:8 and Proverbs 4:18 remind us that light grows brighter when we walk in step with the Spirit, hinting that our best impact may still be ahead.
If you’re weary of identity labels tied to titles, successes, or social media metrics, this conversation will breathe fresh freedom. Kelly’s honest anecdotes and Scripture-rich teaching equip you to step into your God-given role with courage and joy.
👉 Hit play and let the Word recalibrate your view of who you are and why you matter. Then share the message so others can taste the salt and see the light of Christ in action.
We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Episode Transcript
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Kelly Kinder (00:03):
I'm really excited about this series.
We're going through just this.
We're calling the series RedLetters and it's a study of
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
And I'll just tell you up front, prepare you up front, this is,
get ready to be challenged,because Jesus' Sermon, which
covers Matthew, chapter 5through 7, it's disturbingly
(00:23):
radical.
Jesus was a disturbing Jesus andhe doesn't let us get
comfortable with where we are,to bring us really where he
wants us to be.
And I think what he wants to dothrough this whole series, he
just wants us to reevaluatewhere we are in relation to him
and to the kingdom and to therighteousness which he calls out
in this sermon.
And you know, if you were toask someone off the street, do
(00:47):
you think you're a pretty goodperson?
Most of the people that youwould ask that would say yes,
I'm pretty good, and they wouldproceed to tell you what they've
done in the past or maybe whatthey're still doing that they
consider pretty good.
But Jesus in this sermon goesdeeper and he begins to look at
us and to try to encourage us tolook at our heart, to see
(01:09):
what's really going on with us,because there we don't often
look and we find in our heartssome things, that what he wants
to bring us to is truerighteousness.
That's what this sermon isabout, true righteousness.
And, for example, in verse 20of chapter 5, he says For I tell
you, unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes and
(01:30):
Pharisees, you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
And what he shows us, I think,will surprise us.
It will intrigue us and, as Isay, it will challenge us.
Before we get into the messagethis morning, which is going to
be on salt and light, I want tojust kind of give you a little
bit of an orientation to thekingdom, an orientation to the
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kingdom, and I want you topicture it.
As you know, if you areoriented to the king properly.
Some people are, let's say, thekingdom was where you are,
their backs would be toward thekingdom.
But as Jesus begins to get ourattention, we slowly begin to
turn toward him and what heoffers us.
And some of us are like thisand some of us are, as he said,
(02:13):
not far from the kingdom.
Some of us had made the choiceto be in the kingdom and to
trust him and put him firstplace in their life.
So let me give you thisorientation.
I think the thing that I wantedto share first is just simply we
need to define some terms here,because we hear that term
kingdom, kingdom of God, jesuspreferred kingdom of heaven.
(02:35):
It's basically the same thing,all through the scriptures
talking about this kingdom, andyou say what is this kingdom?
And whole books have beenwritten on this subject.
To try to explain it, let mejust kind of give you a bullet
down a bit for you, just in asimple way of thinking about it.
The kingdom of heaven, thekingdom of God, is God's rule
and reign in human hearts.
(02:55):
Does God reign and rule in yourheart today?
Very often we allow our ownplace on the throne to take the
place of our Lord Jesus, andwhat he calls us to do is to put
him there first place.
And so this idea of God's ruleand reign in our hearts, that's
(03:15):
the kingdom that we're pursuing.
Second, I want you to see howJesus puts this sermon together
Matthew, chapter 5 through 7.
If we just kind of read it inselected parts, you know,
sometimes we'll pull out thesection on the Beatitudes or
maybe some other section on, youknow, murder or other things
that we just are really focusedon.
But you know what we'll do bydoing that is miss the overall
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message and context.
And so here's what I want youto see.
Jesus' sermon begins with thehappy attitudes of those who
live kingdom-oriented lives, andlast week Tyler did such a
great job looking at the firstmajor section of chapter 5,
which has traditionally beencalled the Beatitudes, and some
people have called them the BeHappy or the Beautiful Attitudes
(04:00):
.
The Beautiful Attitudes and youmight wonder why we call them
the Beatitudes and that wordcomes from the Latin word beatus
, which means blessed or happy.
Oh how happy or oh how blessed.
You see each of those in theeight qualities that are in
verses 1 through 12 of chapter 5.
Each one of those begins withthe English word blessed, and
(04:24):
for that reason, as I say,they're often called the
beautiful attitudes, becausethey bring us in line with the
kingdom, and this is the wayJesus begins this sermon.
They orient us to the kingdomand picture that turning toward
it.
So let me I can put a diagramhere up for you just to kind of
give you an overall picture ofthe whole sermon, and it might
(04:46):
picture it in chapters fivethrough seven like this Three
words attitude, identity andaction.
Attitude is foundational.
It's what we're talking about.
What we're talking about onWednesday night it's the first
one is critical.
I won't get too much far intoEben's sermon.
I just want to kind of give youthis as an example.
He says there the very firstone the blessed are the poor in
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spirit.
And so we ask ourselves do youfeel your spiritual poverty?
Do you groan because you're notwhat you should be?
Do you feel your inadequacies?
This is where we begin.
You can't even get into thekingdom unless you come as a
spiritually bankrupt person, andso this is foundational.
Now I feel like all of these,all of these beatitudes, all of
(05:30):
these beautiful attitudes comewith a measure of emotion.
You should feel it, and this iswhat draws you in.
And you know, if you're notpoor, you can't get into the
kingdom.
But you hold and carry and I'mtalking about spiritually poor
but you hold these attitudes inyour heart.
These are inward qualities,these are things that come from
(05:51):
inside.
As someone said, attitudedetermines altitude and that's
altitude, and that's never moretrue than in the spiritual life.
Your attitude toward thekingdom will determine your
progression in the kingdom andevery one of these progress as
you go higher and higher in ourrelationship with Jesus.
So these attitudes, theseinward qualities, you can't live
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them out in private.
You just can't.
They have to be.
They only work, they only havepower when you put them to work.
So we're going to see that aswe go through the weeks.
This is the foundational thing,and back in that diagram
attitude, the second one.
This is why Jesus goes on tocrown these with two brilliant
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and searching metaphors salt andlight, which we'll talk about
today.
He uses this to describe ouridentity, our identity in the
world, and so, as I say, we'lllook at those today, and once we
get those the attitude, theidentity then we, and only then,
can we begin to live these out.
These things that we look atfrom chapter later on, in
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chapter 5, begin talking aboutthe ethics of the kingdom.
It's how we ought to live if weare following Jesus, and so
this is revealed in our behaviorbefore a watching world, and so
this gives you really a pictureof the sermon.
The design of Jesus' sermonhere is to give a complete
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portrait of a true disciple, andso keep that in mind as we go
through these.
The main theme, as I said, istrue righteousness, and the main
thrust, really, of the wholemessage I think is found in
Matthew 7, verse 24.
He says everyone then who hearsthese words of mine and does
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them will be like a wise man whobuilt his house on the rock.
You want to build your house onthe rock?
Then follow and obey the wordsof Jesus as we go through here.
So with that in mind, let mejust kind of this morning let's
bring what we look at in saltand light to the teaching this
morning from Jesus and about adisciple's identity Matthew,
chapter 5, verses 13 through 16.
So read with me, if you will.
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He says Jesus says to us, youare the salt of the earth.
But if Jesus says to us, youare the salt of the earth.
But if salt has lost its taste,how shall its saltiness be
restored?
It is no longer good foranything except to be thrown out
and trampled under people'sfeet.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot behidden, nor do people light a
(08:24):
lamp and put it under a basket,but on a stand, and it gives
light to all the house, all inthe house, in the same way.
Let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father who is in heaven.
Let's pray, father, we'rethankful that you teach us from
the great truths that are inyour heart.
(08:45):
And, lord, I just pray forevery one of those folks,
including myself today, thatHoly Spirit, you would move
among us and speak, and, lord,call us to greater and higher
things in terms of your kingdom.
Lord, open our eyes and ourears and our mind, lord, to
understand, and we give youpraise for that in Jesus' name,
(09:05):
amen.
So let's now see what Jesusteaches us about our identity in
this kingdom, the Christianidentity.
Jesus knew that before we focuson how we are to live, we must
first know who we are.
We have to know who we are, andthere is that who am I question
(09:26):
?
That kind of resounds, I think,in every person, every person.
It deeply affects how weinfluence the world in which we
live, and I don't care whetheryou're a Christian here this
morning or you're not yet aChristian.
Your identity is important.
If you don't know who you are,then you really can't rightly
live in this kingdom that Jesusis talking about here, because
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he describes it as somethingthat we are, something we are.
Klein Snodgrass in his book whoGod Says you Are writes.
Every religion, every denial ofreligion and every philosophy
or ideology seeks to tell peoplewho they are, how they fit with
the reality around them and howthey should then live.
(10:08):
If your life has any meaning,it will be because you project,
and have projected, a meaningfulidentity.
Let me just say this, andespecially to us, since it's
Father's Day men, your job isnot your identity.
It's not.
You know, it took me a while tounderstand that, and you know
(10:29):
when I did, when I realized thatmy job was not my identity.
You know what I did?
I took all the diplomas that Ihad obtained off my wall because
they used to define who I was,telling me what I was supposed
to do.
My identity is not in myeducation or it's not in my job.
A 24-year-old woman once saidthis.
(10:51):
She said, and she was put injail because she had really she
had been she committed fraudbecause she'd accumulated
designer clothes and she said Idon't know who I am without my
stuff.
You are not your stuff, you'renot your money, you're not your
clothes, you're not your house,it's not the car that you drive,
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it's not the group that youbelong to, it's not the
political party that you hold to, it's not your country, it's
not your sports team, thecelebrity you try to imitate,
the entertainment that youpursue, and those all may be
factors in maybe forming ouridentity, but they're sort of
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failed attempts to achieve that.
They're not who you are andthey're certainly not who God
says you are.
You know what I found that, andprobably you have too.
Social media tries to conformus to its identity, making us
what focus on ourselves insteadof on the one who made us.
You are made in the image ofGod and God gets to call that
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shot.
He gets to decide who you are.
Our identity, our true identity, flows from understanding, that
made in the image of God.
John Calvin once said.
He said without knowledge ofGod, there is no knowledge of
self.
So to fail to live out of ouridentity you know what it does
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it results for us in a crisis.
I'm talking about discipleshere, followers of Jesus.
If you fail to live out of youridentity in Christ, it creates
a crisis not only for you,because you sort of live in that
tension of I'm not what Ishould be, but I know that
that's not what I am, and italso creates a crisis for the
world.
Because, guess what?
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If you are to be in the worldand be what Jesus calls you to
be, the world loses out, andit's so critical.
Jesus reminds us then of who weare in this passage, and the
first thing he said is you arethe salt of the earth.
We heard that phrase.
Sometimes Somebody says, well,he or she is the salt of the
(13:04):
earth.
What did Jesus mean when hesaid this to these followers?
Salt, you see, back in that day, had a number of uses and I
don't have time to list them allhere.
But the most important functionthat salt provided was it was a
preservative.
It preserved things.
Food, specifically, we take forgranted.
(13:26):
I think that we haverefrigeration in our day.
We just put the meat in thereand it cools.
It keeps it cool.
They didn't have that back then, certainly not in this day for
sure, and the only way topreserve meat was to soak it, or
put the salt on it and press itinto the meat, or put it in
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brine and let it soak there.
And that was true right on upinto the 20th century.
We didn't have refrigerationWithout salt.
What would happen?
The heat would quickly make itspoil and decay.
I want you to listen to one ofthe early missionaries who kind
of describes this.
In a place like the Mideastwhere he served, he said and
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this was years ago he said thiswas absolutely imperative.
Under the high temperatures andhot weather of the region,
decay and decomposition of meatwas astonishingly rapid.
We had no winter weather orcool, frosty nights to chill the
flesh.
We had no winter weather orcool, frosty nights to chill the
flesh.
Besides this, swarms ofubiquitous flies soon hovered
over the butchered carcasses.
(14:30):
The only way to prevent themfrom ruining the meat was to
soak the slabs of meat in astrong solution of salt.
You know those missionaries inthat day that was kind of the
norm.
They said that when DavidLivingstone died and they were
(14:51):
wanting to get his body back toEngland, they used salt to
preserve it.
The person who was his servantactually took out his heart and
buried it there in Africa andthey sent his body back, after
soaking it in salt, toWestminster Abbey for burial,
and so those things were reallycommon.
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So possibly Jesus, then I justsay all that.
To say Jesus possibly meanthe's saying that we prevent the
decay of the world, and that'strue when we step out and do
what Jesus calls us to do.
The world, you see, isdecomposing, it's decaying, it's
rotting away and Jesus iscalling us to step out and be a
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preservative.
Left to itself the culture,just like you're seeing right
now.
It will deteriorate.
So what does that say about thechurch?
Where's the church?
You know, years ago, and justtrying to give you a little
understanding of what it meansto be Saul here, I think I was
eight years old and I wasstanding out at a church right
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before the service began andmost of the people had gone
inside.
My dad and the rest of myparents were inside, brothers
and sisters, and my uncle, whowas the worship leader, was a
little bit late, but he wasthere in the front.
There was a little yard infront of the church and all at
once I heard him yelling stop it, stop that right now, stop it.
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And then I saw him hurriedlyrun into the church and I
followed him in there and I waslike what in the world, even at
eight years old?
He says Sonny, sonny, which ismy dad's name.
He says Sonny.
I told the man that he wasbeating his wife and I told him
to stop, and he's coming afterme.
So you know he was sometimes,you know, spoke before.
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He thought a lot of times, buthe was willing to step out and
have enough courage to tell theman something he needed to hear.
And this is what we do if we'refollowing Jesus At sometimes
the cost, the risk to ourselvescould be greater than we know.
And I don't remember whathappened to that guy.
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I suppose he got afraid and hequit because there was a whole
church full of people in there,maybe, but I don't know.
I don't know what happened.
Just that memory stuck in mymind that my uncle was willing
to say something when nobodyelse would Right, you know, our
presence in the world is meantto retard decay.
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And if you think of yourself asa salty Christian and I'm not
talking about in aself-righteous or condescending
or condemning way, but generallythrough our presence and
through the words we say, we canmake a tangible difference by
what we are in the world,through the words we say, we can
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make a tangible difference bywhat we are in the world.
Question let me ask you who wasthe first salty Christian in the
New Testament?
You think let's ask Jesus.
John the Baptist is who I'mthinking?
John.
Remember what John John?
He not only looked the part,but he acted the part, right,
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rough, but willing to say whatneeded to be said.
Remember what he did More thanone time, john the Baptist.
He rebuked King Herod if youremember the Gospels for
divorcing his wife and marryinghis niece Herodias, who had been
his brother, philip's wife.
And you remember what happenedto John?
He got his head chopped off.
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But remember what Jesus saidabout him in Matthew 11?
I'll just read it, matthew 11,.
He says truly, I say to you,john was Jesus' cousin.
Truly, I say to you, amongthose born of women, there has
arisen no one greater than Johnthe Baptist.
Yet the one who is least in thekingdom of heaven is greater
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than he.
And I think Jesus was just.
Why did he say that?
I think he was so admiring whatJesus, or what John was willing
to do to step out and be whathe needed to be.
This is Jesus who's calling usall to this.
We're to be salty, you see,because, why?
Because God so loved the worldthat he was willing to send his
son.
Can you imagine a more saltyaction than that?
(19:25):
Willing to send his son to die,to take on the sins of you and
me.
That's a salty God and a saltySavior.
I can still remember my trip toIsrael years ago I think I was
in college and during thetravels, you know, you travel
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days and days and days and youstart to get tired and I sit
down.
We were riding on the tour busand I sit down to this German
lady who was on the tour with usand she had lived through World
War II in Germany, had gonethrough that whole thing and her
family had experienced that,and I said that's interesting,
could you tell me about that?
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And she just kind of did likethis, shaking her head.
She said I can't talk aboutthat and I thought why not?
And I asked her about it.
She said it's difficult, somany knew, but they never said
anything.
When the Nazis came and killedall the Jews, she said we knew,
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even the Christians knew, but noone said anything.
And I think she was justashamed because she had not
spoken up and become like this.
What Jesus was calling us to.
So Jesus, I think, is at leasttelling us to be a preservative
for the world and the evilthat's going on around us.
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Number two there's anotherprimary use of salt that I think
Jesus is getting at here.
He specifically ties salt andlook at the text to salt
affecting our taste or theworld's taste.
And boy we understand that,don't we?
How many of you like salt tosalt your eggs Good.
How many like them without salt?
To salt your eggs Good.
How many like them without salt?
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Sometimes you have to Salt, ormaybe your steak off the grill
or a burger.
Most of the time we put salt ina lot of foods because what does
it do?
It adds flavor, it enhances thetaste, and salt gives just a
little tang to whatever we puton it.
And it's just kind of amazing.
It doesn't take a lot, does it?
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Just a pinch sometimes will dothe job.
And I think we need to keepthat in mind when we think about
what Jesus is saying here.
But he says this.
He says in verse 13, if salthas lost its taste, how shall
its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good foranything except to be thrown out
and trampled under people'sfeet.
And his words seem a little bitobscure.
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If you know anything about salt, a pure salt never loses its
flavor.
Sodium chloride it's stable, ithas a stable chemical property.
It doesn't lose its flavor.
So what is Jesus talking about?
What's he getting at here?
Well, back then most naturalsalt was either taken from salt
marshes or maybe even the DeadSea, and when it was there it
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would dry out in the sun and thedeposits would contain a lot of
times, a lot of impurities.
And whenever it was exposed tothe elements, guess what would
happen?
The salt would wash away.
And what would happen?
The salt would wash away and itwould just leave essentially
the dirt, no salt.
And I think this is kind of theimagery that Jesus is trying to
get at, maybe trying to say whenthe world gets into the church,
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it dilutes our testimony, itdilutes what we have to say to
the world and carelesslyallowing the impurities of the
world to get into us.
And I think this is a powerfulindictment on disciples who have
lost their distinctiveness.
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The title of the message is theChristian Distinctive, so we no
longer have anything tocontribute to society.
Maybe that's where we, a bit weare today.
When the church looks like theworld, when it compromises, when
it, when it gives up its truthand its values and the practices
it holds, jesus says it becomestasteless, bland, even
(23:28):
worthless to God's purposes.
In the world.
The world, you see, doesn'trespect Christianity.
When it gets like this, whatdoes it do?
It just ignores it and kind of.
You know this is a sort ofdeserved persecution.
When the world doesn't opposeus and it just doesn't care, you
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know what it does.
It's just a simple contempt forus, just complete disinterest
in the church.
I don't want you to feel likeJesus' words are hopeless,
because when he says it's lostits savor, I think he's trying
to tell disciples don't losethis, because you know what he
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doesn't say you should look likesalt.
He says you are salt, this isyour identity.
You carry this.
But for Jesus, a tastelessChristian is an ineffective
Christian.
Our English word is kind of agood word to think about this,
and I put this on here because Ithink it is a good word to look
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at this definition by Webster's.
The word insipid may not be acommon word for you, but it's a
word that Webster's describes it.
It describes us losing what weoffer really well.
The word means lacking inqualities that interest,
stimulate or challenge Dull,flat, lacking taste or savor.
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You know what Jesus is, I think, warning us about.
He's warning us about beingboring Christians.
The world doesn't have anythingto look at.
We ought to be the most dynamic, exciting, creative people in
all the world.
Here's something else, and Ithink it's a little bit more
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subtle even than that, and maybewarning us of losing something
that's more significant.
Even the word for taste here inverse 13 is the word merino in
the Greek, and it's not thenormal word for taste.
This word literally means tobecome foolish, and so what
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sounds like a totallyinappropriate verb in the
sentence really is ametaphorical way of symbolizing
the wisdom which the disciplesought to be showing, ought to be
exhibiting, and when we losethe wisdom that God gives us, we
have nothing to give away tothe world.
Because why?
Because the church a lot oftimes loses the wisdom that God
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gives us, and we reject thetruth of God and prefer the way
we think of things worldlywisdom.
And guess what this is saying?
It's the church that takes onthe character of a fool, so that
there's a little bit ofsuggestion here of there's a
moral deficiency going on that'sinherent in the idea of being a
fool, and so this is a failure,a moral failure, and so we fail
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to align ourself with the truthof God, we lose our ability to
be salt in the world.
It's what I think he's gettingat, and so it's a significant
warning.
Someone can ask, I think, atthis point, how do you then
become a salty Christian?
And that's the wrong question.
You already are, simply bybeing in vital connection to him
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.
So we're not challenged to besalty, we're challenged to stay
salty, to remain faithful towhat we are, what he's made us
to be, and so I think this is agood reminder for us.
You are the salt of the earth.
Think about that.
Jesus gives us another metaphorabout our Christian identity.
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I think it's so essential.
It's you are the light of theworld.
You are the light of the world.
Salt is different, isn't it,than light in its purpose.
Light gets rid of the darknessby just doing one thing shining.
Shining.
And where there's light, peoplecan find their way.
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In the darkness, everythingbecomes clear.
If they don't stumble, they'renot lost when the light is
turned on and I'm talking aboutspiritually.
For us, ours is a reflectedlight.
Think about these verses John 8,12 through 13,.
Jesus said I am the light ofthe world.
Whoever follows me will notwalk in darkness, but will have
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the light of life.
And in John 9, 5, he said aslong as I'm in the world, I am
the light of the world.
Now think with me on.
This is what happened whenJesus left this world.
Who did he send?
He sent the Holy Spirit, right.
And when he was gone he saidthe Holy Spirit would do one
thing.
He said the Holy Spirit willconvict the world of sin and
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righteousness and judgment.
So how does it happen if theworld doesn't know, doesn't have
that connection with God?
Because you're going to carrythat?
Only through us, because we'reindwelt by the Spirit, have the
capacity to give the world whatit needs to hear the message
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about Christ and the gospel,about sin and righteousness and
judgment.
Jesus calls us to a visibledemonstration of the light
within us.
That's what he's saying here.
He literally calls us this isthe way it's written the light
of the cosmos.
The light of the cosmos, it's adifferent word than we might
think.
It's not like dirt.
The light of the cosmos, it's adifferent word than we might
think.
It's not like dirt, it's likethe world system.
(29:11):
You're the light of the worldsystem, not the physical earth,
but the world system.
And notice three things he saysabout us, about the light here.
Number one he tells us.
First of all, jesus tells uswhere we are light and what he's
saying.
Our Christian influence has tobe out there.
It has to be prominent, it hasto be visible.
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This is in verse 14 and 15.
And it's notable here thatJesus uses the plural when he
says you are the light of theworld.
In East Tennessee, y'all are thelight of the world, all of you
who belong to Christ.
And what we do, we so oftenthink in terms of me, myself and
(29:55):
I, what I've got to do.
And I think his word to us isno, you are that, but I'm really
talking about this.
If anything, jesus is speaking,at some level, of many lights
together.
If I have a pin light and Ihave 10,000 pin lights, it looks
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like bigger than a little light.
Right, I have a picture here.
I want you to see this.
This is a picture of a NASAspace station going over the
United States and you can seethe cities that are out in the
rural areas and they just have alittle bit of light.
Sometimes you can just barelysee them, but for the cities
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that have multiple lights, it'sso easy to see Cities set on a
hill.
So See, we're to be visible in.
I think Jesus is saying we're tobe visible in a practical way
in the public space.
Are you light where you work?
Are you light out in thecommunity?
A city set on a hill cannot behidden.
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He's the one that sets us onthe hill.
Our task is to turn the lighton to shine.
City on the hill.
Our task is to turn the lighton to shine.
City on the hill emphasizeswhat it emphasizes the corporate
power of being light in thepublic square.
Boy, this is something we'remissing, something that we need,
and I think also we're to bevisible in our homes.
(31:22):
Since this is Father's Day,word to you, father.
He says or you put it on astand, and it gives light to
what All in the house Apractical application would be.
Are you being light in yourhouse, men?
You are the prophet, priest andking in your home.
You're the one that carries thelight, you're the one that
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leads out in spiritual mattersto bring the word to bear on
your family life, maybe theprayer life, and I just
challenge you, if you're notdoing that, just step out and be
light in your family.
This is a transformative placewhere everything changes is out
of the family.
Boy.
We got to recapture that.
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Folks.
We're going to be visible.
You know, I heard a little boyone time in Sunday school.
He was taught that Jesus wasthe light of the world and after
class he went up to his teacherand he said if Jesus is the
light, he's really the light ofthe world.
I wish he'd come out and hangout at my house.
It's really dark there.
We need this.
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We need this so much.
The consequences of peopleliving in spiritual darkness,
you see, is tragic and it'sdevastating.
And Jesus is simply telling usstop hiding your light.
Stop hiding your light.
Jesus not only tells us wherewe are light in prominent places
(32:50):
, he tells us.
Secondly, jesus tells us how weare light.
Our Christian influence, I thinkhe says here, is simply when
you're light, be an attractive,light, be attractive.
Verse 16 says In the same waylet your light shine before
others.
Highlight so that they may seeyour good works.
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So they've got something tolook at that lets them know.
There's something differentabout you and me, the word good
in this expression.
There's different words forgood.
This one is a word that usuallydescribes something that has an
attractive form or appearanceto it.
So, rather than maybe thecontent of a thing, and I just
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think of practically just simpleacts of kindness.
I was out, I don't remember, amonth or so ago and we were in
Walmart and I'm not, you know,thinking anything about it, but
the lady couldn't reachsomething at the top, trying to
get some things at the grocerystore and she's just kind of
looking around.
Nobody was helping her and itwas a little taller than I am
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because I'm a little shortmyself.
But I said let's see if we canget that for you.
Those little things like that,simple acts of kindness, can
communicate volumes and I thinkthe Holy Spirit can give each
one of us times and places.
He just prompts us to say go,do that for that person.
Let them know who you are.
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Ephesians 5, 8, 9 says for atone time you were darkness, but
now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light, forthe fruit of light is found in
all that is good and right andtrue.
Good, right and true.
This is the lifestyle thatwe're to lead, and I think how
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we do, what we do, matters toGod, really matters to God.
Well, there's a third thingJesus tells us not only where
and how we're to be like, hetells us why.
Why we're like Our Christianinfluence is to be purposeful,
intentional.
Verse 16 says so that why?
Why are we doing these goodworks?
So they may see them.
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And what?
Give glory to your Father whois in heaven.
This is the ultimate purpose ofbeing light, isn't it that we
glorify God?
You say, what does that mean?
To glorify God means to letpeople see God's attributes,
that he's good, that he's kind,that he's faithful, that he's
loving All these things that arethe character of God.
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He wants people to see that inyour life and sort of, as I say,
be a reflection of who he is.
Proverbs 4.18 says the path ofthe righteous is like the light
of dawn, which shines brighterand brighter until full day.
Brian Bill gives a really greatexample of this when he writes
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this little story.
He says During the summerbetween my first and second year
at Moody Bible Institute, I hadthe privilege of teaching at a
Bible college in Zimbabwe,africa.
This experience marked my lifeand ministry in countless ways.
One of the memories I have ishow dark it was at night Because
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we were in a rural area.
There were no streetlights orneon signs.
When the sun went down it waspitch dark.
During the first week we had anactivity at the Bible school at
night and when it was over Iheaded to the dormitory which
was located about a quarter of amile away.
Over, I headed to the dormitorywhich was located about a
(36:30):
quarter of a mile away.
I somehow got separated fromothers and found myself walking
in deep darkness across thesoccer field.
I felt disoriented, distressed,alone and afraid.
I knew the dorm was at the endof the field, but I couldn't see
anything.
It was so dark I couldn't evensee my hand in front of my face.
I kept walking very slowly,squinting in the hopes of
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finding some sort of light toguide my way.
I finally saw the faint beamfrom a classmate's flashlight
and made my way back.
You think that might be how theworld might see us the light
that brings hope in the darkness.
(37:13):
I saw a recent article calledthe Power of Light.
It kind of caught my attentionand it goes like this.
It says there's been a lightfrom the beginning.
In all its forms, visible andinvisible.
It saturates the universe.
No one is exactly sure how todescribe it.
It's a measure of light'simportance in our daily lives
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that we hardly pay any attentionto it.
Light is almost like air, it'sa given.
A human would no more lingerover the concept of light than a
fish would ponder the notion ofwater.
There are exceptions, certainmoments of sudden appreciation
when a particular manifestationof light, a transitory glory
appears a rainbow, a sunset, apulse of heat lightning in a
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dark sky, the shimmering surfaceof the sea at twilight.
Usually, though, we don't seethe light, we merely see with it
.
We merely see with it.
This is what we are folks, andpeople can't see.
Without the light that we offer, without the spiritual light we
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offer, we'll you know Scripturekind of talks like we'll all
die in the dark.
Listen to what 2 Corinthians 4says Even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to thosewho are perishing In their case.
The God of this world hasblinded the minds of the
unbelievers to keep them fromseeing the light of the gospel,
of the glory of Christ, who isthe image of God.
(38:43):
For God, who said let lightshine out of darkness, has shown
in our hearts to give the lightof the knowledge of the image
of God, for God, who said letlight shine out of darkness has
shown in our hearts to give thelight of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face ofJesus Christ.
Well, let's land this plane.
You know, salt can sit foryears on my table and next to
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the steak.
Unless I pour the salt on thesteak, the steak remains the
same.
Light too can shut down thedeepest darkness, but guess what
?
Unless I flip the switch,nothing happens.
And so there is this keydistinction in both of these
images salt and light.
It's distinction.
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To be effective, the Christianhas to seek and display the
Christian distinctive.
You are salt, you are light,and we can, as we step out in
faith, be that for the world.
We just have to do it.
We just have to do it.
And you know what I'm praying.
I'm praying that we all, eachof us, will hear the Spirit of
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God in these days as we'rewatching all the chaos that's
going on out there, and say thisis my moment.
Church, this is your moment.
What are you waiting for?
Let's pray.
This is your moment.
What are you waiting for?
Let's pray.
Father, we're thankful that youcall us and you identify us by
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name.
We are yours, as the word wasshared this morning.
You're pleased with us and youlove us beyond measure.
Lord, you haven't rejected usand you haven't put a stamp of
hopelessness on us.
You haven't said you're donewith us.
Lord, we're here for a purpose.
I pray today for myself and forevery person who hears today,
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lord, that we'll take on ouridentity, our true identity
that's found in you, and be whatwe are in these days, and we
pray that in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm really excited about this series.
We're going through just this.
We're calling the series RedLetters and it's a study of
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
And I'll just tell you up front, prepare you up front, this is,
get ready to be challenged,because Jesus' Sermon, which
covers Matthew, chapter 5through 7, it's disturbingly
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radical.
Jesus was a disturbing Jesus andhe doesn't let us get
comfortable with where we are,to bring us really where he
wants us to be.
And I think what he wants to dothrough this whole series, he
just wants us to reevaluatewhere we are in relation to him
and to the kingdom and to therighteousness which he calls out
in this sermon.
And you know, if you were toask someone off the street, do
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you think you're a pretty goodperson?
Most of the people that youwould ask that would say yes,
I'm pretty good, and they wouldproceed to tell you what they've
done in the past or maybe whatthey're still doing that they
consider pretty good.
But Jesus in this sermon goesdeeper and he begins to look at
us and to try to encourage us tolook at our heart, to see
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what's really going on with us,because there we don't often
look and we find in our heartssome things, that what he wants
to bring us to is truerighteousness.
That's what this sermon isabout, true righteousness.
And, for example, in verse 20of chapter 5, he says For I tell
you, unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes and
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Pharisees, you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
And what he shows us, I think,will surprise us.
It will intrigue us and, as Isay, it will challenge us.
Before we get into the messagethis morning, which is going to
be on salt and light, I want tojust kind of give you a little
bit of an orientation to thekingdom, an orientation to the
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kingdom, and I want you topicture it.
As you know, if you areoriented to the king properly.
Some people are, let's say, thekingdom was where you are,
their backs would be toward thekingdom.
But as Jesus begins to get ourattention, we slowly begin to
turn toward him and what heoffers us.
And some of us are like thisand some of us are, as he said,
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not far from the kingdom.
Some of us had made the choiceto be in the kingdom and to
trust him and put him firstplace in their life.
So let me give you thisorientation.
I think the thing that I wantedto share first is just simply we
need to define some terms here,because we hear that term
kingdom, kingdom of God, jesuspreferred kingdom of heaven.
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It's basically the same thing,all through the scriptures
talking about this kingdom, andyou say what is this kingdom?
And whole books have beenwritten on this subject.
To try to explain it, let mejust kind of give you a bullet
down a bit for you, just in asimple way of thinking about it.
The kingdom of heaven, thekingdom of God, is God's rule
and reign in human hearts.
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Does God reign and rule in yourheart today?
Very often we allow our ownplace on the throne to take the
place of our Lord Jesus, andwhat he calls us to do is to put
him there first place.
And so this idea of God's ruleand reign in our hearts, that's
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the kingdom that we're pursuing.
Second, I want you to see howJesus puts this sermon together
Matthew, chapter 5 through 7.
If we just kind of read it inselected parts, you know,
sometimes we'll pull out thesection on the Beatitudes or
maybe some other section on, youknow, murder or other things
that we just are really focusedon.
But you know what we'll do bydoing that is miss the overall
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message and context.
And so here's what I want youto see.
Jesus' sermon begins with thehappy attitudes of those who
live kingdom-oriented lives, andlast week Tyler did such a
great job looking at the firstmajor section of chapter 5,
which has traditionally beencalled the Beatitudes, and some
people have called them the BeHappy or the Beautiful Attitudes
(04:00):
.
The Beautiful Attitudes and youmight wonder why we call them
the Beatitudes and that wordcomes from the Latin word beatus
, which means blessed or happy.
Oh how happy or oh how blessed.
You see each of those in theeight qualities that are in
verses 1 through 12 of chapter 5.
Each one of those begins withthe English word blessed, and
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for that reason, as I say,they're often called the
beautiful attitudes, becausethey bring us in line with the
kingdom, and this is the wayJesus begins this sermon.
They orient us to the kingdomand picture that turning toward
it.
So let me I can put a diagramhere up for you just to kind of
give you an overall picture ofthe whole sermon, and it might
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picture it in chapters fivethrough seven like this Three
words attitude, identity andaction.
Attitude is foundational.
It's what we're talking about.
What we're talking about onWednesday night it's the first
one is critical.
I won't get too much far intoEben's sermon.
I just want to kind of give youthis as an example.
He says there the very firstone the blessed are the poor in
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spirit.
And so we ask ourselves do youfeel your spiritual poverty?
Do you groan because you're notwhat you should be?
Do you feel your inadequacies?
This is where we begin.
You can't even get into thekingdom unless you come as a
spiritually bankrupt person, andso this is foundational.
Now I feel like all of these,all of these beatitudes, all of
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these beautiful attitudes comewith a measure of emotion.
You should feel it, and this iswhat draws you in.
And you know, if you're notpoor, you can't get into the
kingdom.
But you hold and carry and I'mtalking about spiritually poor
but you hold these attitudes inyour heart.
These are inward qualities,these are things that come from
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inside.
As someone said, attitudedetermines altitude and that's
altitude, and that's never moretrue than in the spiritual life.
Your attitude toward thekingdom will determine your
progression in the kingdom andevery one of these progress as
you go higher and higher in ourrelationship with Jesus.
So these attitudes, theseinward qualities, you can't live
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them out in private.
You just can't.
They have to be.
They only work, they only havepower when you put them to work.
So we're going to see that aswe go through the weeks.
This is the foundational thing,and back in that diagram
attitude, the second one.
This is why Jesus goes on tocrown these with two brilliant
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and searching metaphors salt andlight, which we'll talk about
today.
He uses this to describe ouridentity, our identity in the
world, and so, as I say, we'lllook at those today, and once we
get those the attitude, theidentity then we, and only then,
can we begin to live these out.
These things that we look atfrom chapter later on, in
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chapter 5, begin talking aboutthe ethics of the kingdom.
It's how we ought to live if weare following Jesus, and so
this is revealed in our behaviorbefore a watching world, and so
this gives you really a pictureof the sermon.
The design of Jesus' sermonhere is to give a complete
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portrait of a true disciple, andso keep that in mind as we go
through these.
The main theme, as I said, istrue righteousness, and the main
thrust, really, of the wholemessage I think is found in
Matthew 7, verse 24.
He says everyone then who hearsthese words of mine and does
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them will be like a wise man whobuilt his house on the rock.
You want to build your house onthe rock?
Then follow and obey the wordsof Jesus as we go through here.
So with that in mind, let mejust kind of this morning let's
bring what we look at in saltand light to the teaching this
morning from Jesus and about adisciple's identity Matthew,
chapter 5, verses 13 through 16.
So read with me, if you will.
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He says Jesus says to us, youare the salt of the earth.
But if Jesus says to us, youare the salt of the earth.
But if salt has lost its taste,how shall its saltiness be
restored?
It is no longer good foranything except to be thrown out
and trampled under people'sfeet.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot behidden, nor do people light a
(08:24):
lamp and put it under a basket,but on a stand, and it gives
light to all the house, all inthe house, in the same way.
Let your light shine beforeothers so that they may see your
good works and give glory toyour Father who is in heaven.
Let's pray, father, we'rethankful that you teach us from
the great truths that are inyour heart.
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And, lord, I just pray forevery one of those folks,
including myself today, thatHoly Spirit, you would move
among us and speak, and, lord,call us to greater and higher
things in terms of your kingdom.
Lord, open our eyes and ourears and our mind, lord, to
understand, and we give youpraise for that in Jesus' name,
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amen.
So let's now see what Jesusteaches us about our identity in
this kingdom, the Christianidentity.
Jesus knew that before we focuson how we are to live, we must
first know who we are.
We have to know who we are, andthere is that who am I question
(09:26):
?
That kind of resounds, I think,in every person, every person.
It deeply affects how weinfluence the world in which we
live, and I don't care whetheryou're a Christian here this
morning or you're not yet aChristian.
Your identity is important.
If you don't know who you are,then you really can't rightly
live in this kingdom that Jesusis talking about here, because
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he describes it as somethingthat we are, something we are.
Klein Snodgrass in his book whoGod Says you Are writes.
Every religion, every denial ofreligion and every philosophy
or ideology seeks to tell peoplewho they are, how they fit with
the reality around them and howthey should then live.
(10:08):
If your life has any meaning,it will be because you project,
and have projected, a meaningfulidentity.
Let me just say this, andespecially to us, since it's
Father's Day men, your job isnot your identity.
It's not.
You know, it took me a while tounderstand that, and you know
(10:29):
when I did, when I realized thatmy job was not my identity.
You know what I did?
I took all the diplomas that Ihad obtained off my wall because
they used to define who I was,telling me what I was supposed
to do.
My identity is not in myeducation or it's not in my job.
A 24-year-old woman once saidthis.
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She said, and she was put injail because she had really she
had been she committed fraudbecause she'd accumulated
designer clothes and she said Idon't know who I am without my
stuff.
You are not your stuff, you'renot your money, you're not your
clothes, you're not your house,it's not the car that you drive,
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it's not the group that youbelong to, it's not the
political party that you hold to, it's not your country, it's
not your sports team, thecelebrity you try to imitate,
the entertainment that youpursue, and those all may be
factors in maybe forming ouridentity, but they're sort of
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failed attempts to achieve that.
They're not who you are andthey're certainly not who God
says you are.
You know what I found that, andprobably you have too.
Social media tries to conformus to its identity, making us
what focus on ourselves insteadof on the one who made us.
You are made in the image ofGod and God gets to call that
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shot.
He gets to decide who you are.
Our identity, our true identity, flows from understanding, that
made in the image of God.
John Calvin once said.
He said without knowledge ofGod, there is no knowledge of
self.
So to fail to live out of ouridentity you know what it does
(12:22):
it results for us in a crisis.
I'm talking about discipleshere, followers of Jesus.
If you fail to live out of youridentity in Christ, it creates
a crisis not only for you,because you sort of live in that
tension of I'm not what Ishould be, but I know that
that's not what I am, and italso creates a crisis for the
world.
Because, guess what?
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If you are to be in the worldand be what Jesus calls you to
be, the world loses out, andit's so critical.
Jesus reminds us then of who weare in this passage, and the
first thing he said is you arethe salt of the earth.
We heard that phrase.
Sometimes Somebody says, well,he or she is the salt of the
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earth.
What did Jesus mean when hesaid this to these followers?
Salt, you see, back in that day, had a number of uses and I
don't have time to list them allhere.
But the most important functionthat salt provided was it was a
preservative.
It preserved things.
Food, specifically, we take forgranted.
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I think that we haverefrigeration in our day.
We just put the meat in thereand it cools.
It keeps it cool.
They didn't have that back then, certainly not in this day for
sure, and the only way topreserve meat was to soak it, or
put the salt on it and press itinto the meat, or put it in
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brine and let it soak there.
And that was true right on upinto the 20th century.
We didn't have refrigerationWithout salt.
What would happen?
The heat would quickly make itspoil and decay.
I want you to listen to one ofthe early missionaries who kind
of describes this.
In a place like the Mideastwhere he served, he said and
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this was years ago he said thiswas absolutely imperative.
Under the high temperatures andhot weather of the region,
decay and decomposition of meatwas astonishingly rapid.
We had no winter weather orcool, frosty nights to chill the
flesh.
We had no winter weather orcool, frosty nights to chill the
flesh.
Besides this, swarms ofubiquitous flies soon hovered
over the butchered carcasses.
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The only way to prevent themfrom ruining the meat was to
soak the slabs of meat in astrong solution of salt.
You know those missionaries inthat day that was kind of the
norm.
They said that when DavidLivingstone died and they were
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wanting to get his body back toEngland, they used salt to
preserve it.
The person who was his servantactually took out his heart and
buried it there in Africa andthey sent his body back, after
soaking it in salt, toWestminster Abbey for burial,
and so those things were reallycommon.
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So possibly Jesus, then I justsay all that.
To say Jesus possibly meanthe's saying that we prevent the
decay of the world, and that'strue when we step out and do
what Jesus calls us to do.
The world, you see, isdecomposing, it's decaying, it's
rotting away and Jesus iscalling us to step out and be a
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preservative.
Left to itself the culture,just like you're seeing right
now.
It will deteriorate.
So what does that say about thechurch?
Where's the church?
You know, years ago, and justtrying to give you a little
understanding of what it meansto be Saul here, I think I was
eight years old and I wasstanding out at a church right
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before the service began andmost of the people had gone
inside.
My dad and the rest of myparents were inside, brothers
and sisters, and my uncle, whowas the worship leader, was a
little bit late, but he wasthere in the front.
There was a little yard infront of the church and all at
once I heard him yelling stop it, stop that right now, stop it.
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And then I saw him hurriedlyrun into the church and I
followed him in there and I waslike what in the world, even at
eight years old?
He says Sonny, sonny, which ismy dad's name.
He says Sonny.
I told the man that he wasbeating his wife and I told him
to stop, and he's coming afterme.
So you know he was sometimes,you know, spoke before.
(16:45):
He thought a lot of times, buthe was willing to step out and
have enough courage to tell theman something he needed to hear.
And this is what we do if we'refollowing Jesus At sometimes
the cost, the risk to ourselvescould be greater than we know.
And I don't remember whathappened to that guy.
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I suppose he got afraid and hequit because there was a whole
church full of people in there,maybe, but I don't know.
I don't know what happened.
Just that memory stuck in mymind that my uncle was willing
to say something when nobodyelse would Right, you know, our
presence in the world is meantto retard decay.
(17:28):
And if you think of yourself asa salty Christian and I'm not
talking about in aself-righteous or condescending
or condemning way, but generallythrough our presence and
through the words we say, we canmake a tangible difference by
what we are in the world,through the words we say, we can
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make a tangible difference bywhat we are in the world.
Question let me ask you who wasthe first salty Christian in the
New Testament?
You think let's ask Jesus.
John the Baptist is who I'mthinking?
John.
Remember what John John?
He not only looked the part,but he acted the part, right,
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rough, but willing to say whatneeded to be said.
Remember what he did More thanone time, john the Baptist.
He rebuked King Herod if youremember the Gospels for
divorcing his wife and marryinghis niece Herodias, who had been
his brother, philip's wife.
And you remember what happenedto John?
He got his head chopped off.
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But remember what Jesus saidabout him in Matthew 11?
I'll just read it, matthew 11,.
He says truly, I say to you,john was Jesus' cousin.
Truly, I say to you, amongthose born of women, there has
arisen no one greater than Johnthe Baptist.
Yet the one who is least in thekingdom of heaven is greater
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than he.
And I think Jesus was just.
Why did he say that?
I think he was so admiring whatJesus, or what John was willing
to do to step out and be whathe needed to be.
This is Jesus who's calling usall to this.
We're to be salty, you see,because, why?
Because God so loved the worldthat he was willing to send his
son.
Can you imagine a more saltyaction than that?
(19:25):
Willing to send his son to die,to take on the sins of you and
me.
That's a salty God and a saltySavior.
I can still remember my trip toIsrael years ago I think I was
in college and during thetravels, you know, you travel
(19:47):
days and days and days and youstart to get tired and I sit
down.
We were riding on the tour busand I sit down to this German
lady who was on the tour with usand she had lived through World
War II in Germany, had gonethrough that whole thing and her
family had experienced that,and I said that's interesting,
could you tell me about that?
(20:08):
And she just kind of did likethis, shaking her head.
She said I can't talk aboutthat and I thought why not?
And I asked her about it.
She said it's difficult, somany knew, but they never said
anything.
When the Nazis came and killedall the Jews, she said we knew,
(20:31):
even the Christians knew, but noone said anything.
And I think she was justashamed because she had not
spoken up and become like this.
What Jesus was calling us to.
So Jesus, I think, is at leasttelling us to be a preservative
for the world and the evilthat's going on around us.
(20:51):
Number two there's anotherprimary use of salt that I think
Jesus is getting at here.
He specifically ties salt andlook at the text to salt
affecting our taste or theworld's taste.
And boy we understand that,don't we?
How many of you like salt tosalt your eggs Good.
How many like them without salt?
To salt your eggs Good.
How many like them without salt?
(21:12):
Sometimes you have to Salt, ormaybe your steak off the grill
or a burger.
Most of the time we put salt ina lot of foods because what does
it do?
It adds flavor, it enhances thetaste, and salt gives just a
little tang to whatever we puton it.
And it's just kind of amazing.
It doesn't take a lot, does it?
(21:32):
Just a pinch sometimes will dothe job.
And I think we need to keepthat in mind when we think about
what Jesus is saying here.
But he says this.
He says in verse 13, if salthas lost its taste, how shall
its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good foranything except to be thrown out
and trampled under people'sfeet.
And his words seem a little bitobscure.
(21:56):
If you know anything about salt, a pure salt never loses its
flavor.
Sodium chloride it's stable, ithas a stable chemical property.
It doesn't lose its flavor.
So what is Jesus talking about?
What's he getting at here?
Well, back then most naturalsalt was either taken from salt
marshes or maybe even the DeadSea, and when it was there it
(22:19):
would dry out in the sun and thedeposits would contain a lot of
times, a lot of impurities.
And whenever it was exposed tothe elements, guess what would
happen?
The salt would wash away.
And what would happen?
The salt would wash away and itwould just leave essentially
the dirt, no salt.
And I think this is kind of theimagery that Jesus is trying to
get at, maybe trying to say whenthe world gets into the church,
(22:42):
it dilutes our testimony, itdilutes what we have to say to
the world and carelesslyallowing the impurities of the
world to get into us.
And I think this is a powerfulindictment on disciples who have
lost their distinctiveness.
(23:02):
The title of the message is theChristian Distinctive, so we no
longer have anything tocontribute to society.
Maybe that's where we, a bit weare today.
When the church looks like theworld, when it compromises, when
it, when it gives up its truthand its values and the practices
it holds, jesus says it becomestasteless, bland, even
(23:28):
worthless to God's purposes.
In the world.
The world, you see, doesn'trespect Christianity.
When it gets like this, whatdoes it do?
It just ignores it and kind of.
You know this is a sort ofdeserved persecution.
When the world doesn't opposeus and it just doesn't care, you
(23:54):
know what it does.
It's just a simple contempt forus, just complete disinterest
in the church.
I don't want you to feel likeJesus' words are hopeless,
because when he says it's lostits savor, I think he's trying
to tell disciples don't losethis, because you know what he
(24:15):
doesn't say you should look likesalt.
He says you are salt, this isyour identity.
You carry this.
But for Jesus, a tastelessChristian is an ineffective
Christian.
Our English word is kind of agood word to think about this,
and I put this on here because Ithink it is a good word to look
(24:36):
at this definition by Webster's.
The word insipid may not be acommon word for you, but it's a
word that Webster's describes it.
It describes us losing what weoffer really well.
The word means lacking inqualities that interest,
stimulate or challenge Dull,flat, lacking taste or savor.
(25:03):
You know what Jesus is, I think, warning us about.
He's warning us about beingboring Christians.
The world doesn't have anythingto look at.
We ought to be the most dynamic, exciting, creative people in
all the world.
Here's something else, and Ithink it's a little bit more
(25:24):
subtle even than that, and maybewarning us of losing something
that's more significant.
Even the word for taste here inverse 13 is the word merino in
the Greek, and it's not thenormal word for taste.
This word literally means tobecome foolish, and so what
(25:44):
sounds like a totallyinappropriate verb in the
sentence really is ametaphorical way of symbolizing
the wisdom which the disciplesought to be showing, ought to be
exhibiting, and when we losethe wisdom that God gives us, we
have nothing to give away tothe world.
Because why?
Because the church a lot oftimes loses the wisdom that God
(26:05):
gives us, and we reject thetruth of God and prefer the way
we think of things worldlywisdom.
And guess what this is saying?
It's the church that takes onthe character of a fool, so that
there's a little bit ofsuggestion here of there's a
moral deficiency going on that'sinherent in the idea of being a
fool, and so this is a failure,a moral failure, and so we fail
(26:31):
to align ourself with the truthof God, we lose our ability to
be salt in the world.
It's what I think he's gettingat, and so it's a significant
warning.
Someone can ask, I think, atthis point, how do you then
become a salty Christian?
And that's the wrong question.
You already are, simply bybeing in vital connection to him
(26:57):
.
So we're not challenged to besalty, we're challenged to stay
salty, to remain faithful towhat we are, what he's made us
to be, and so I think this is agood reminder for us.
You are the salt of the earth.
Think about that.
Jesus gives us another metaphorabout our Christian identity.
(27:19):
I think it's so essential.
It's you are the light of theworld.
You are the light of the world.
Salt is different, isn't it,than light in its purpose.
Light gets rid of the darknessby just doing one thing shining.
Shining.
And where there's light, peoplecan find their way.
(27:42):
In the darkness, everythingbecomes clear.
If they don't stumble, they'renot lost when the light is
turned on and I'm talking aboutspiritually.
For us, ours is a reflectedlight.
Think about these verses John 8,12 through 13,.
Jesus said I am the light ofthe world.
Whoever follows me will notwalk in darkness, but will have
(28:06):
the light of life.
And in John 9, 5, he said aslong as I'm in the world, I am
the light of the world.
Now think with me on.
This is what happened whenJesus left this world.
Who did he send?
He sent the Holy Spirit, right.
And when he was gone he saidthe Holy Spirit would do one
thing.
He said the Holy Spirit willconvict the world of sin and
(28:27):
righteousness and judgment.
So how does it happen if theworld doesn't know, doesn't have
that connection with God?
Because you're going to carrythat?
Only through us, because we'reindwelt by the Spirit, have the
capacity to give the world whatit needs to hear the message
(28:48):
about Christ and the gospel,about sin and righteousness and
judgment.
Jesus calls us to a visibledemonstration of the light
within us.
That's what he's saying here.
He literally calls us this isthe way it's written the light
of the cosmos.
The light of the cosmos, it's adifferent word than we might
think.
It's not like dirt.
The light of the cosmos, it's adifferent word than we might
think.
It's not like dirt, it's likethe world system.
(29:11):
You're the light of the worldsystem, not the physical earth,
but the world system.
And notice three things he saysabout us, about the light here.
Number one he tells us.
First of all, jesus tells uswhere we are light and what he's
saying.
Our Christian influence has tobe out there.
It has to be prominent, it hasto be visible.
(29:31):
This is in verse 14 and 15.
And it's notable here thatJesus uses the plural when he
says you are the light of theworld.
In East Tennessee, y'all are thelight of the world, all of you
who belong to Christ.
And what we do, we so oftenthink in terms of me, myself and
(29:55):
I, what I've got to do.
And I think his word to us isno, you are that, but I'm really
talking about this.
If anything, jesus is speaking,at some level, of many lights
together.
If I have a pin light and Ihave 10,000 pin lights, it looks
(30:17):
like bigger than a little light.
Right, I have a picture here.
I want you to see this.
This is a picture of a NASAspace station going over the
United States and you can seethe cities that are out in the
rural areas and they just have alittle bit of light.
Sometimes you can just barelysee them, but for the cities
(30:38):
that have multiple lights, it'sso easy to see Cities set on a
hill.
So See, we're to be visible in.
I think Jesus is saying we're tobe visible in a practical way
in the public space.
Are you light where you work?
Are you light out in thecommunity?
A city set on a hill cannot behidden.
(31:00):
He's the one that sets us onthe hill.
Our task is to turn the lighton to shine.
City on the hill.
Our task is to turn the lighton to shine.
City on the hill emphasizeswhat it emphasizes the corporate
power of being light in thepublic square.
Boy, this is something we'remissing, something that we need,
and I think also we're to bevisible in our homes.
(31:22):
Since this is Father's Day,word to you, father.
He says or you put it on astand, and it gives light to
what All in the house Apractical application would be.
Are you being light in yourhouse, men?
You are the prophet, priest andking in your home.
You're the one that carries thelight, you're the one that
(31:45):
leads out in spiritual mattersto bring the word to bear on
your family life, maybe theprayer life, and I just
challenge you, if you're notdoing that, just step out and be
light in your family.
This is a transformative placewhere everything changes is out
of the family.
Boy.
We got to recapture that.
(32:06):
Folks.
We're going to be visible.
You know, I heard a little boyone time in Sunday school.
He was taught that Jesus wasthe light of the world and after
class he went up to his teacherand he said if Jesus is the
light, he's really the light ofthe world.
I wish he'd come out and hangout at my house.
It's really dark there.
We need this.
(32:29):
We need this so much.
The consequences of peopleliving in spiritual darkness,
you see, is tragic and it'sdevastating.
And Jesus is simply telling usstop hiding your light.
Stop hiding your light.
Jesus not only tells us wherewe are light in prominent places
(32:50):
, he tells us.
Secondly, jesus tells us how weare light.
Our Christian influence, I thinkhe says here, is simply when
you're light, be an attractive,light, be attractive.
Verse 16 says In the same waylet your light shine before
others.
Highlight so that they may seeyour good works.
(33:14):
So they've got something tolook at that lets them know.
There's something differentabout you and me, the word good
in this expression.
There's different words forgood.
This one is a word that usuallydescribes something that has an
attractive form or appearanceto it.
So, rather than maybe thecontent of a thing, and I just
(33:36):
think of practically just simpleacts of kindness.
I was out, I don't remember, amonth or so ago and we were in
Walmart and I'm not, you know,thinking anything about it, but
the lady couldn't reachsomething at the top, trying to
get some things at the grocerystore and she's just kind of
looking around.
Nobody was helping her and itwas a little taller than I am
(34:00):
because I'm a little shortmyself.
But I said let's see if we canget that for you.
Those little things like that,simple acts of kindness, can
communicate volumes and I thinkthe Holy Spirit can give each
one of us times and places.
He just prompts us to say go,do that for that person.
Let them know who you are.
(34:22):
Ephesians 5, 8, 9 says for atone time you were darkness, but
now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light, forthe fruit of light is found in
all that is good and right andtrue.
Good, right and true.
This is the lifestyle thatwe're to lead, and I think how
(34:45):
we do, what we do, matters toGod, really matters to God.
Well, there's a third thingJesus tells us not only where
and how we're to be like, hetells us why.
Why we're like Our Christianinfluence is to be purposeful,
intentional.
Verse 16 says so that why?
Why are we doing these goodworks?
So they may see them.
(35:06):
And what?
Give glory to your Father whois in heaven.
This is the ultimate purpose ofbeing light, isn't it that we
glorify God?
You say, what does that mean?
To glorify God means to letpeople see God's attributes,
that he's good, that he's kind,that he's faithful, that he's
loving All these things that arethe character of God.
(35:27):
He wants people to see that inyour life and sort of, as I say,
be a reflection of who he is.
Proverbs 4.18 says the path ofthe righteous is like the light
of dawn, which shines brighterand brighter until full day.
Brian Bill gives a really greatexample of this when he writes
(35:49):
this little story.
He says During the summerbetween my first and second year
at Moody Bible Institute, I hadthe privilege of teaching at a
Bible college in Zimbabwe,africa.
This experience marked my lifeand ministry in countless ways.
One of the memories I have ishow dark it was at night Because
(36:10):
we were in a rural area.
There were no streetlights orneon signs.
When the sun went down it waspitch dark.
During the first week we had anactivity at the Bible school at
night and when it was over Iheaded to the dormitory which
was located about a quarter of amile away.
Over, I headed to the dormitorywhich was located about a
(36:30):
quarter of a mile away.
I somehow got separated fromothers and found myself walking
in deep darkness across thesoccer field.
I felt disoriented, distressed,alone and afraid.
I knew the dorm was at the endof the field, but I couldn't see
anything.
It was so dark I couldn't evensee my hand in front of my face.
I kept walking very slowly,squinting in the hopes of
(36:53):
finding some sort of light toguide my way.
I finally saw the faint beamfrom a classmate's flashlight
and made my way back.
You think that might be how theworld might see us the light
that brings hope in the darkness.
(37:13):
I saw a recent article calledthe Power of Light.
It kind of caught my attentionand it goes like this.
It says there's been a lightfrom the beginning.
In all its forms, visible andinvisible.
It saturates the universe.
No one is exactly sure how todescribe it.
It's a measure of light'simportance in our daily lives
(37:35):
that we hardly pay any attentionto it.
Light is almost like air, it'sa given.
A human would no more lingerover the concept of light than a
fish would ponder the notion ofwater.
There are exceptions, certainmoments of sudden appreciation
when a particular manifestationof light, a transitory glory
appears a rainbow, a sunset, apulse of heat lightning in a
(38:00):
dark sky, the shimmering surfaceof the sea at twilight.
Usually, though, we don't seethe light, we merely see with it
.
We merely see with it.
This is what we are folks, andpeople can't see.
Without the light that we offer, without the spiritual light we
(38:21):
offer, we'll you know Scripturekind of talks like we'll all
die in the dark.
Listen to what 2 Corinthians 4says Even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to thosewho are perishing In their case.
The God of this world hasblinded the minds of the
unbelievers to keep them fromseeing the light of the gospel,
of the glory of Christ, who isthe image of God.
(38:43):
For God, who said let lightshine out of darkness, has shown
in our hearts to give the lightof the knowledge of the image
of God, for God, who said letlight shine out of darkness has
shown in our hearts to give thelight of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face ofJesus Christ.
Well, let's land this plane.
You know, salt can sit foryears on my table and next to
(39:06):
the steak.
Unless I pour the salt on thesteak, the steak remains the
same.
Light too can shut down thedeepest darkness, but guess what
?
Unless I flip the switch,nothing happens.
And so there is this keydistinction in both of these
images salt and light.
It's distinction.
(39:30):
To be effective, the Christianhas to seek and display the
Christian distinctive.
You are salt, you are light,and we can, as we step out in
faith, be that for the world.
We just have to do it.
We just have to do it.
And you know what I'm praying.
I'm praying that we all, eachof us, will hear the Spirit of
(39:51):
God in these days as we'rewatching all the chaos that's
going on out there, and say thisis my moment.
Church, this is your moment.
What are you waiting for?
Let's pray.
This is your moment.
What are you waiting for?
Let's pray.
Father, we're thankful that youcall us and you identify us by
(40:13):
name.
We are yours, as the word wasshared this morning.
You're pleased with us and youlove us beyond measure.
Lord, you haven't rejected usand you haven't put a stamp of
hopelessness on us.
You haven't said you're donewith us.
Lord, we're here for a purpose.
I pray today for myself and forevery person who hears today,
(40:39):
lord, that we'll take on ouridentity, our true identity
that's found in you, and be whatwe are in these days, and we
pray that in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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